Internships & Co-ops
Above and beyond classes, independent study and involvement in research is encouraged for all interested students. This takes place often in the form of internships and co-op studies with industry and research centers. The following is a list of the internships and co-ops that some of the Florida Tech Chemical Engineering students have worked on.

Lisa Cole ('08)-  Participated in a Co-Op at Anaren Microwave, Inc. in Syracuse, NY.  Lisa worked to improve several of the company's current processes including chemically etching of circuit boards.

Mathew Herdiech ('08)- Participated in a nine week REU program at Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH.  Mathew worked on a project called "Self-Assembled Organometallic Copolymers as Templates for Ordered Arrays of Bimetallic nanomagnets."  The goal of this research is to build a nanomagnet for increased storage of computer chips.

Laura Hoisington ('07)- Participated in an REU project at Boston University.  She worked in an ECE lab in BU;s Photonics Center using a He/Ne laser in a spectral self-interfering set-up.  This set up can measure the height of fluoropheres on the surface of Si/SiO2 ships in the nanometer range. 

Mutsa Kambarami ('07)- Participated over the summer of 2006 in a Pfizer Global Research and Development Project Title 8 Process Optimization for a Phase 2b Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient.  Mutsa assisted in analyzing a 6 step reaction on a small scale batch reactor.  Material balances were calculated to determine output composition when various reaction parameters were altered.  The main goal was to find out what factors affected the purity of the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API), and, in the worst case, what the yield and purity of the APT would be prior to scaling up in a pilot plant.

Jenny Patterson ('07)- Participated in the summer REU program at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.  Her research focused on Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC).  The objective of her research was to determine the characteristics of the conditions in which methanol fuel cells lose efficiency.  While at USC, Jenny won First place in a competition among the other 24 students interning with her.  Her work from this internship will be published, and she will compete in the poster competition at the National AIChE conference in Cincinnati, OH.

Laura Hoisington ('07)- Participated in the summer REU program at the University of South Carolina.  Her research focused on the Synthesis and Characterization of Dendrimer Encapsulated Platinum and Palladium Catalysts.  The research required her to create catalysts using Dendrimer in order to control the particle characteristics.

Jason Conrad (05)- Participated in the summer REU program at Clemson University in South Carolina.  The project was titled "Rheological Characterization of Filled Polymers".  The objective of the research was to perform steady state, capillary, and extensional tests on a 15% (by volume) glass in polystyrene blend in order to compare the effects of increasing shear rate on its viscosity versus those for pure polystyrene.

Lindsay Morgan (05) - Did a summer internship in 2004 at Malmstram Air Force Base in Montana.  She worked on various projects with environmental engineers, including storm water drain velocity measurements and observations, environmental impact statements and analyses, total suspended solids observations measurements, and calculations in water leaving the base.  She researched chlorine/chloramine reactions, processes, and ratios needed to be obtained on base to maintain safe drinking water.

Mark Heavner (04) - Worked as an intern at the Argonne National Laboratory's Energy and Environmental Science and Technology Department in the summer of 2003. He was involved in the planning and setup of a project aiming to elevate the potential of a technique for producing hydrogen from hydrogen sulfide.

Delania DeShetler (04) -Participated in the project SABL (Simulation of Air Bourne Laser) at Boeing-SVS, Inc. in the summer of 2003. She worked with a team of Engineers to simulate an optical laser system aboard an aircraft, aiming to locate and track a missile fired from the ground. She also designed GUI's (Graphical User Interfaces) in Matlab to select sensors in the simulation and plot the sensor signal outputs.

Steve Anthony (04) - Participated in the NSF-REU program at the Johns Hopkins University Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering in Summer 2003. He worked on developing nanoparticles for pulmonary drug delivery using an oil-in-water emulsion. He tracked uptake of the particles by epithelial cells using fluorescent microscopy and flow Cytometry.

Randy J Coslow (04) - Worked as a Manufacturing Quality intern at GE Sealants and Adhesives in summer 2003. He wrote several MS Access databases for inventory purposes and stable operatory database for recording production, delays and scrap. He also analyzed statistically the applied viscometry method, tested a new device and made a formal proposal for an improved system. He was briefly the quality control manager and worked on improving safety regulations on mixing equipment cleaning.

Dustin Phelps ('03) worked at the IBM Almaden Research Center, San Jose, CA in the summer of 2002 as a Research Intern in the Science and Technology department. He worked with a novel NMR sample prep procedure which made it possible to analyze monolayer thick lubricant film behavior.

Matthew Ascroft ('03) was hired as a summer engineer for the environmental affairs departemnt of Gulf Power in summer 2002. Gulf Power is the North West Florida power generation portion of Southern Company (one of the biggest power companies in the south.)

Chin Ping Chng ('02) participated in the 2001 NSF Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Virginia Tech, where she successfully synthesized a novel crown ether and studied its polymerization with 4,4'-oxybisaniline.

Simone Cowan ('03) carried out a co-op study in the Summer of 2001 at Rowan University, sponsored by NSF. The project entailed research on solar alternatives and design of an alternative energy sub-system to supplement power delivery to the Rowan University Bookstore.

Dustin Phelps ('03) researched the effect of Pd loadings on Hydrogenation of trace Acetylene in Ethylene at the University of New Mexico, in the summer of 2001. He used a gas chromatograph to analyize reaction kinetics, studied tunneling electron microscope images for insight into the effects of loading on particle size and active sites, and created a model that related active sites to crystallite diameter.

Philip Cobb ('01) spent over a year at the Kennedy Space center working in a co-op study for NASA. He assisted in the design of the chemical plant that will be built on the surface of Mars to produce the propellant for the spacecraft's return to Earth. He also designed test equipment and helped with insulation testing and automation in the cryogenics testbed, a critical part of the space shuttle's fuel loading process.

Chinping Chng ('02) co-oped on "Laser Ablation and Deposition of Lead Induim Phosphate (LIP) Glass" at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in the summer of 2000. She performed experimental research on the ablation characteristics of LIP Glass using a short-pulse laser source. The glass was prepared for deposition using a silicon wafer as a thin film.

Daniel Magro ('01) performed an internship study at Sulla Engineering in the summer of 2000. He designed process connections for a Coca-Cola Plant, using AutoCad as the drawing software.

Bruce Locuson ('01) worked at NASA-KSC in the summer of 2000 on a Boiler Emissions (NOx) Study. This was part of a NASA/ASEE faculty fellowship with Dr. Maria Pozo de Fernandez. He was an on-site project coordinator and test engineer, and performed a detailed efficiency study of a water scrubber, supervised its construction and scheduled its test operations. He also co-designed a furnace reactor piping system to reduce the number of pre-heaters needed to increase the temperature of flue gas supplied to the reactor.

Javier Junco ('00) co-oped for the Pfizer Pharmaceutical Enviromental Security & Safety Department in the summer of 2000 as an Assistant Engineer. He prepared a workplace exposure histories folder summarizing the chemicals used in each process, the possible effects, and the safety equipment that should be used in case of exposure. He also evaluated a heat stress central system for chemical protective equipment.

Daniel Magro ('01) co-oped at Cerveleria Polar, a brewery in Venezuela, in the summer of 1999. He develped a labor procedure manual for the maintainance of the wells used for the water supply.

Javier Junco ('00) worked as an Assistant Engineer in a co-op study for the Pfizer Pharmaceuticals Project Engineering Department in the summer of 1999. He designed a water treatment system for the organic synthesis production unit and proposed system improvements for a solvent recovery unit.

Bruce Locuson ('01) completed a co-op study at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) in summer '97. He assisted a group of FSEC researchers led by Dr. Clovis Linkous in an experimental study of the photocatalytic inhibition of algae growth.

Philip Cobb ('00) has co-oped with the Mechanical and Electrical ground supports systems division of NASA Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral. He worked in the fluids and propellants section of that group, assisting primarily in cryogenics research.

Patrick Engel ('00) contracted a co-op study with the Corporate Environmental Health and Safety Department of Harris Corporation. He dealt mostly with waste contractor audit criteria and health and safety data management issues throughout the global corporation, and helped a Risk Model team sift out companies that needed auditing, and initiated the proper procedures.

Debbie Goss ('99) assisted in the design of a photocatalytic reactor that used TiO2 to break down nitroclycerine into NOx, CO, and CO2. The study was carried out at the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) during the summer of '97.

Jennifer Herrmann ('99) co-oped for the Mead Specialty Papers Plant, at South Lee, MA, during the Spring of 1998.

Derek Huston ('99) did a co-op study at Harris Corporation in the summer of 1998. He was responsible for assessing the current environmental strategies at various business units and identifying possible improvement areas based on a numerical analysis matrix. He also assisted with the development of an investment recovery program for Harris Corporate Headquarters, performed wastes contractor due diligence audits, and developed a waste contractor management database.

Robert Pellegrin ('99) worked as a temporary technical specialist at the Cyanamid Agricultural Research Division in Princeton, NJ, during the Summer of '97. Bob characterized unknown potential herbicides using mass spectrometry, and worked on Structural Activity Relationships to develop mass spec-based screening mathods for potentially active compounds.

David Scott ('99) co-oped with NASA at the Kennedy Space Center in summer '98. He assisted with the process simulation and design of the In Situ Propellant Production (ISPP) Plant. The ISPP Plant is intended to operate autonomously on the surface of Mars to produce the fuel needed for the spacecrafts' return to Earth. David's contributions focused on the design of the adsorption compressor that will procure and compress the carbon dioxide of the Martian atmosphere. He researched the complex principles governing the compressor's performance, developed the proper mathematical model describing its operation, and wrote the numerical code to solve the model using LISP, an artificial intelligence language.

David Scott ('99) also worked for two semesters with Harris Corporate Headquarters Environmental, Health, and Safety division. He designed and maintained (using Microsoft Access) waste emmission databases for a corporate-wide benchmarking program.

Patricia Kelly ('98) worked for several semesters for NASA in the Environmental/Propellants Office at the Kennedy Space Center. Her responsibilities included processing environmental check-lists, and assisting in paper recycling, halon phase-out, toxic release inventory, stormwater design, permit applications and National Environmental Policy Act Documentation.

James Scrivener ('98) worked during the the summer of 1997 as a research assistant in the Special Projects Division of the Florida Solar Energy Center. The goal of the research was to design a vapor phase photo-catalytic detoxification unit for use at the Naval Surface Weapons Center in Indian Head, Maryland. The unit was to be the largest reactor of its kind, and the first to utilize UV photo-activated catalysts for vapor detoxification.

Sabina Winters ('98) worked during the summer of '97 in the Safety and Environmental Department of Snyder Oil Corporation in Denver, CO. She was responsible for developing corporate-wide Emergency Response Plans. These Plans included information on emergency response resources and State and Federal regulations for Texas, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.

Joseph Coffmann ('97) worked under a NASA fellowship on two projects for Boeing North American. First, he completed Dr. Whitlow's project on modeling the cryogenic loading of the Space Shuttle External Tank. The developed model was incorporated into the knowledge base used in an expert system known as Boeing North American Propulsion Advisory Tool (PAT). The model was then used to predict and diagnose a wide variety of possible faults that could lead to safety problems, aborted launches, or faulty devices. His second project focused on statistical process control and data trend analysis for the Vacuum Jacketed Cryo-Test-Bed facility. The Vehicle Health Management analysis was introduced into an expert system for fault detection and diagnosis.

For a few more co-op's and internships, check the Student Accomplishments Page.

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